Frank joined Dec 6, 2006

Dragonsdoom's roots started as a hardcore gamer; playing hundreds of hours of Counter-strike, Baulder's Gate and Sim-style games for years.
Even as he played such games, he was fascinated with the concept of 'Level Editors', creating many small levels for such games as Sim City, Age of Empires and Stronghold. He eventually experimented with further design concepts such as GUI style mods in Age of Empires. After a time, he decided to become a developer himself, to be more than a consumer amongst the horde and give back to the community.
He learned true 3d level design by starting on the Source engine, and is currently learning how to do do every aspect of game development in the hopes of starting his own indie company with some college pals.

'Gather round, and listen to the tale I set before ye, a tale of the dark times and dark years before heroes came unto the light and drove out tha vile darkness.'

Once upon a time, there was a genre of computer game known as the FPS, and in those days it was well respected. One of the glorious leading games was known as Quake, and it was the crowning wish of many games to strive for the popularity that Quake had, with the fun gameplay it offered.

But then, the realm ofFPSfell intodarkness..

Several leading games working in cooperation decided that Quake had more than it's fair share of popularity, and worked to dethrone it. In evilly smoking game forges and editors late in the dark of night, they labored and created a new title:Counter-Strike, The herald of darkness!

Supported later by it's brothers in darkness, Counter-Strikeseized the popularity of Quake, and plunged the gamers of the FPS world down in the horrifying abyss of Bullet Hoses. Games in the Counter-Strike style became widely popular as the game spread it's tendrils of mind control into the minds and hearts of gamers everywhere, spreading the dreadful message of different sounding weapons that flashed and sprayed bullets like water.
Even Quake was subjected to the mind control, spawning Call Of Duty in it's insanity, only to be backstabbed by it's own progeny, as Call Of Dutyitself became a Bullet Hose game.

Even as the darkness spread, there came those who would oppose it, at any cost:
Small cadres of gamers spread and created a underground resistance, all the while taking mass casualties from the legions of mind controlled fans who knew not what they did and said. Bands of such controlled fans often took it upon themselves to crush all opposition, training themselves to be inquisitors and heralds for the cause of the controlling games in battles to the death in massive arenas known as Gaming Forums.

Some in the path of the mind controlling games, fearing to be crushed in the combat fled to the far east; where strange gamers in odd HUD interfaces played complex and awe inspiring matches of those games known as RTS and TBS.
Others spread out into the wild ice fields of the north, where in frozen caves they sat at the feet of the Great Old Ones and learned the ancient and powerful art of the 2D Platformer.

And then in later years Heroes emerged from training and hiding. Schooled in the powerful ways of their ancestors, creating such games as Half-Life 2 and Worms Armageddon, they strode into the halls of their fathers, and lit the forges anew, using such powerful tools as Fire, Air, Explosions and many others to smith and enchant one of the most powerful weapons of the generation.

And Lo; there came to us one of the saviors of our kind, the dawning light of

Team Fortress 2!

Featuring such odd weapons as the short range flamethrower and stickybomb launcher, Team Fortress 2 broke the evil spell of Bullet Hoses and reclaimed the Throne of Quake as a glorious bastion of gaming, to rule over the lands of FPS in diversity and ingenuity.

Even today, as we have the light of Team Fortress 2 and it's Unreal guardians to protect us, some of us fall back or are even still prisoners of the last age of darkness, reveling in their crude Bullet Hose fantasies, and planning a return to power.So take heed my kindred, that you do not fall as the chaff from the grain to the darkness of such corrupt games, and keep your eyes ever open to the potential diversity and ingenuity of our modern brothers, for we do not want a return to the M4 and AK wars, we want a new age of weaponized variety!

Disclaimer:
1) This is supposed to be over the top in a humorous way, the whole 'Fire darkness evil darkness darkness' thing was intended.

2) I liked Counter-Strike and played it quite a bit, even to the point of competitive league play.

3) Not everyone will understand this article, it requires a fairly decent vocabulary, a general understanding of the games involved and something of a appreciation for fantasy novels or games and how they are generally written.

4) Please do not contact me to tell me that one game or another came out at completely the wrong time for this article to make sense, it is a work of fiction.